Editorial: Ralph Nader unelectable at any age

It should be abundantly clear now that Ralph Nader’s reason for his latest quixotic run for the White House is about one thing and one thing only – Ralph Nader’s ego.

The Patriot Ledger

It should be abundantly clear now that Ralph Nader’s reason for his latest quixotic run for the White House is about one thing and one thing only – Ralph Nader’s ego.

Maybe during one or more of his previous four campaigns for president, Nader’s vision was pure, his intent righteous, but Nader has now devolved into a punch line that will relegate him to being remembered as the modern-day Harold Stassen, who sought the presidency nine times between 1948 and 1992, perhaps even on the level of comedian Pat Paulsen.

Nader, who first burst into national conscience in 1965 with his searing look at the auto industry in “Unsafe at Any Speed,” has never met a candidate he liked, if you listen to his ever-strident rhetoric. While his lashings of the Republican party offerings can be passed off as ideological incompatibility with the GOP platform, his remonstrations of Democrats smack of a political version of the attention-starved Mr. Blackwell, who only comes out to undress those he views as sartorially challenged.

Nader has labeled Hillary Clinton a “political coward,” claimed Barack Obama “censored himself” and, to no one’s surprise, called John McCain the “candidate of perpetual war.”

In 2000, he rationalized his presence in the race by tagging George Bush and Al Gore “Tweedledee and Tweedledum – they look and act the same, so it doesn't matter which you get.” Eight years later, we can say for sure Nader’s myopic view was not born out by reality and his siphoning of votes in Florida and New Hampshire likely led to Gore’s defeat, making Nader the darling of conservatives.

No one, it seems, is the perfect candidate for Ralph Nader – except Ralph Nader. Yet Nader’s highest vote total ever was in 2000 and he didn’t even break 3 percent then.

“Dissent is the mother of assent,” the septuagenarian consumer advocate declared in his announcement.

But it seems in Nader’s case, dissent is merely a petulant 5-year-old, unable to get his own way.

Compromise, apparently, is not a word often found in the Nader vocabulary. Clearly if there is a chance to further any core issues Nader cares about, whether it is health care, withdrawing from Iraq, championing alternative energy and keeping a watchful eye on corporate misdeeds, he could find some common ground with some credible candidate.

Absolutely, everyone has a right to run for president in this country. Thousands do every four years and some otherwise longshots, in the two-party system like the afore-mentioned Republican Stassen and the late Massachusetts Democrat Paul Tsongas or independents like Ross Perot and John Anderson, can enrich both the race and the dialogue.

Not so Nader and maybe that is the point. Maybe he isn’t satisfied he has contributed and maybe he’s afraid he never can. Apparently, the vast majority of voters concur. We can only hope he understands there is nothing noble in being a spoiler nor sadder than being an unintended national joke.